Pheonix reborn
by FreakCub
Summary: Ling Xioayu is on a search, a search for answers, a search for a meaning, and a search for him. Nothing is going to stand in her way.


I sat atop the mountain not far from my home, I took big panting breaths, I had been told to run to the top. My training never stops. Even when I come back home to rest. I was on break from school- finally. School wasn't that bad, but it hasn't been the same since _he_ left. I sighed as I thought of the last time I saw him, his eyes glowing with power, sadness and hatred. I heard a gust of wind to the left and quickly dodged the incoming attack, jumping into the air and into a ready position.

I relaxed and laughed as I saw Panda, my best friend and body guard, rolling on the ground having given up testing me as soon as I dodged. I went over to her and sat down, cuddling, and scratching her behind her ears. Panda was a genetically modified panda who was trained to fight and assigned as my body guard by Heihachi Mishima. Heihachi Mishima used to be the leader of the Mishima Zaibatsu, the most powerful corporation in the world. There were other corporations that challenged them, such as G corp, but Zaibatsu still remained the most powerful.

Every now and then, the Zaibatsu announced the King of Iron Fist tournament. It was a fighting tournament for all fighting types, I competed last year. Heihachi Mishima had announced that the prize would have been the whole company. Lots of fighters chose to enter, including my friend Alisa. She's a robot, she was programmed to look for her father- her creator. That's why she chose to enter the tournament, she wanted to find him. She was beaten by Lars, she didn't want to fight him but _he_ forced her to. She likes Lars but she won't admit it to me. I don't understand why, we're friends, we're supposed to talk about stuff like that. Though neither of us were exactly normal teenage girls, I mean she's a humanoid robot. Though not many people know about it.

Me, Alisa, and Panda hung out a lot. They humoured me by going the nearby amusement park all the time. Panda didn't like big rides, and Alisa didn't really get the point of them. They both still come with me though, they know that it's my dream to open up my own theme park one day. I'm Ling Xiaoyu and I live in Japan. I'm 18 years old now and in my last year of high school. I was about to finish for good, I had a few finals coming up then my final year would be over and I would go travelling.

My Grandfather hated the idea of at first, he wanted me to continue the training his way, but I convinced him that I needed to train in different places and said that I would meditate under a waterfall. I felt my face screw up at the idea of it, not that I was going to. I wanted to believe that I just wanted to see the world, but inside I knew I was searching. Searching for _him._ Panda and Alisa were going to come with me of course, they both understood what we'll be doing. I think that it's part of the reason Alisa decided to come with me. If we found _him_ then it would be incredibly likely to see Lars, I didn't know the reason why, but Lars was after him. So wherever he was, Lars wouldn't be far behind.

The man I was looking for was Jin Kazama, he went from an old friend, to a Ceo, to a maniac- according to the rest of the world.

I was debating whether to track Lars instead, it could potentially be easier to track Lars, and he could help us to get close to Jin. The issue would be that Lars seemed to want Jin dead, so it could be a stupid and reckless idea. Alisa would like it because she would get to see Lars, but it could turn ugly if Jin made her fight Lars again. I sighed, why does everything have to be difficult? Why can't things go back to the way they were before? Everything seemed so much simpler back then, just go to school and hang out with friends, but I suppose one of your best friends going crazy, taking over a major corporation, making another best friend fight the guy she likes, and generally trying to take over the world, does tend to complicate things.

I sighed again, lying back and staring up at the blue sky. Everybody thought that Jin was evil, but I didn't believe it. I saw the pain in his eyes when he was fighting us, the same pain as when his mother died. I saw him holding himself back, as if he was barely in control of himself, as if something else was trying to come out. I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts. It wouldn't do any good to keep thinking about it. I would find Jin and I would find out what was happening. I know that Mishima Zaibatsu and Heihachi Mishima had something to do with it but I didn't know what. I would hack into every computer system they had to find though, I had been working on my hacking skills and apparently I'm a quick learner, according to Kenji. And I had Alisa, she could hack into almost any computer system.

I sighed and stood up closing my eyes and fanning my arms out as if I was readying myself to fly away. After about 5 minutes of this, I felt Panda pull on my trousers. I looked at her smiling, kissing her on the forehead and climbing onto her back. She steadied herself on four-legs and shot off down the mountain through the trees. I laughed in exhilaration, feeling the chilled air comb through my hair as we weaved in between the trees. There wasn't a single moment that I thought we would crash, me and Panda had done this many times, I completely trusted her speed, balance and reflexes. Panda only slowed down when the house and dojo came into view. She slowed by digging her paws into the ground and sliding to the stairs stopping just moments before we would have hit them. I laughed and jumped off, but the smile was immediately wiped off my face when I saw the deep gouges we had made in the grass from the slide.

I looked over at Panda who bowed her head slightly in apology, "We've done it again Panda", I complained, "Grandpa's going to be so angry, it's the third time this week."

I heard shuffling as someone made there way around the corner on the wooded porch that went all the way around the house. I looked at Panda and we both made a run for it before the person saw us. We knew who it was when a gruff, angry yell was heard, "LING XIOAYU! PANDA! YOU COME FIX MY GARDEN THIS INSTANT!"

I backed away slowly and as quietly as possible. Then when I was far enough away I turned around and ran towards the forest. My Grandfather was difficult to talk to when he was happy, let alone angry. I could get to the road through the forest and walk to the nearby town, I turned to Panda, "Let's go for a walk around the town, it will be better if we give him a hour or so to cool down before we go back."

Panda grunted in agreement, I jumped on her back and we sped towards the town. The streets were busy when we got there, full of energy and excitement. Everybody was rushing around, it was market day so every shop and stall was open, there were lots of people in suits out for lunch and walking to their offices and lots of people shopping and talking. I breathed it all in, feeling my own excitement levels rising, there was a small fair on around the corner, they put it on every year. They had different foods from all over the world, lots of music and, of course, rides.

I walked down the street towards the entrance of the fair, but was pulled back by Panda, she had her teeth in my trousers. I turned and crouched slightly, scratching her behind the ears, "What's wrong?"

She turned and looked to the right, I looked up and followed her gaze. Standing inconspicuously on the side of the road was a man in black clothing and shades. I studied him and noticed scarring on his face, they looked like they made a 'x' shape. He noticed that we were looking at him and before I could react he was gone. I rubbed my arms, I had goosebumps, something was very wrong about that man. I looked at Panda again who was nervously pawing at the ground. "Maybe we should head back home." I suggested, Panda seemed to agree, and in moments I was on her back and we were speeding down the road back to the house. We kept an eye out the whole way, but saw nothing suspicious.

The house came into sight and I breathed a sigh of relief as we stopped by the front door, this time not ruining the garden. I made my way into the dojo, taking my shoes off before I walked in, as panda lay down outside for a nap.

I heard my Grandpa before I saw him, "1... 2... 1... 2..." He shouted at the students. My plan was to wait outside the door until they finished, but my Grandpa heard me approach.

"Ling Xiaoyu, please enter."

I sighed ready for him to berate me, I bowed at the door and walked in and approached my Grandpa. He was a tough looking old man. His back was slightly arched due to age, he wore a dark blue, traditional keikogi, and he had short wavy white hair on top of his head and a curvy mustache.

He students were all standing straight, with their arms behind their backs, looking on expectantly.

"Hello Grandfather, is there anything you need?"

He didn't answer me, he turned to his students. "Which of you believed you had the skills to enter the tournament?"

I sighed internally, he was using me for a teaching moment. Whenever his students got cocky, he'd bring me in to spar with them so that they would stay in line.

A few hands went up, "Okay, you will spar with my Granddaughter, and should any of you win, you may enter the tournament."

There were a few murmurs as they eyed me up and decided that I was no threat. One of them chuckled. Cocky smirks appeared on some of their faces. The one who chuckled raised his hand and spoke, "Are you sure Sensei? We wouldn't want to hurt her."

Grandpa gave him an even look, "You've already lost half the battle by underestimating your opponent."

The murmurs continued and they looked down on me, I felt a small amount of anger rise, though I forced myself to push it down, one of my Grandpa's lessons coming back to me. His gruff voice rang through my head, _strong emotions will unbalance you, you need to control the emotions, not the other way around._

Another student raised his hand and asked a question, "Who will go first?"

I spoke before my Grandpa did, "All of you, I'll fight you all at the same time." I looked at my Grandpa for approval, he nodded.

"All who wish to enter the tournament will fight against her."

I could practically feel the confidence rise in the room as they underestimated me. The group of seven who wanted to fight, moved into the centre of the room, while the others moved to circle the edges with anticipation.

My Grandpa looked at me and lowered his voice, "Don't go too easy on them, but don't go to hard either. I need them to be able to come back tomorrow."

I smiled and nodded, moving to stand in front of the group. We all got into out ready positions and Grandpa called the start of the fight, if you could even call it that.

They all ran at me as soon as it started, which is what I expected, I countered and parried every fierce move they made without hitting back. I ducked, weaved and dodged until I saw small beads of sweat run down their faces. That's when I went on to the offensive. They were too tired from attacking to block and counter effectively as I hit them at lightning speed, and one by one they went down. The last man standing was the one who laughed, he rushed at me again, stupid idea and I disarmed him in seconds. He fell to the floor taking long gasping breaths. Grandpa ended the fight.

I looked at them all lying on the floor, "Did you learn anything?"

The remained silent, so I spoke for them, "If Grandfather says that you are not ready for tournaments, then you are not ready for tournaments. You all need to work on technique and stamina. Rule number one is never underestimate your opponent, no matter how they look, as Grandfather said, you had already lost half the battle. Also rushing in and hoping for the best is not smart, your opponent will use that against you. I simply had to tire you out with your own attacks before I began to attack."

I walked over to Grandpa and he gave me a rare smile before turning to the students. "You heard her, we will continue to work on it in our sessions. You may clean up and go home. Same time tomorrow."

Me and Grandpa walked out and into the house, as the students picked up what remained of their shattered ego.

We entered the house and sat on the sofa's, Grandpa's back had kept him from making the house too traditional, and he had let me pick out a lot of things for the house. I sighed as he sat and relaxed, most of the sternness, that he used with the students, dropped from his face.

"You did a good job Xioayu, I won't be to hard on you for what you did to my garden."

I smiled bashfully, "Thank you."

"Where did you and Panda run off to? I practically saw smoke."

"We went to the town, they have a fair on." I lost my smile as I thought of the strange man.

"What's wrong?" He looked at me concerned.

"There was a weird man there, Panda saw him-"

Panda's grunt of agreement sounded from the front door as she walked in and settled down in front of me.

"He was looking at us, he was wearing all black. I don't know why but he gave me and Panda a weird feeling."

Panda nodded.

Grandpa looked between us, worried. "Anything else you remember about him?"

I nodded, "He had scars on his face, I couldn't tell because he was wearing dark glasses but they looked like an 'x'"

Grandpa looked at us, worry in every feature of his face.

"What's wrong? Do you know him?"

He shook his head and stood, "Don't think too much about it. Now I believe you have chores to do?"

I nodded as he walked into his room and shut the door. I stood and began my chores, Panda following me around as I did them.

"There's something going on Panda, something big if Grandpa's worrying, we have to find out what it is."

Panda rubbed against my legs in comfort and agreement. I finished up went to my room and began to plan, I was going to find out what was going wrong. I didn't know why but I had a feeling that it had to do with Jin. I thought about the strange man again and goosebumps popped up as I thought about what he could be up to and how he seemed to disappear into thin air when we spied him. I took a deep breath a plan forming in my mind. I would get to the bottom of this, especially if it had something to do with Jin. I was scared but couldn't ignore the hope that it was to do with him. Leads were popping up without me looking for them; I wasn't sure whether it was a good or bad thing, but I wasn't going to ignore it.


End file.
